I

nstead of reading the NYT online this morning while treadmilling, I messed about with twitter. I am now following 88 people/institutions. I say institutions because  many bookstores, publishers, radio stations and music groups have a twitter account going. The American Booksellers Association appears to have someone twittering. Very interesting.

Now if I could just get this web site a bit less out of the box and flexible.

Yesterday my lovely daughter Sarah suggested some web building freeware (NVU, KompoZer, Amaya)  She found them on A+Freeware. Thank you Sarah.

I’m not that worried about making the web pages at this point. I’m more concerned about figuring out how my webhost (BluHost) means for users to redo the domain pointers. Last time wordpress locked me out as admin, my brother redid stuff and I’m not sure what all he changed. I think he tinkered inside some files and he probably won’t remember. (I would say hi to you Mark but I don’t think you’re doing that much online stuff like reading my blog and facebook and such).

Anyway, twitter instantly connected me to a bunch of people and I’m very interested in the conversation. Cory Doctorow (from over at BoingBoing) had a very interesting twitter this morning…. I already linked it into Facebook but in case you missed it:

This is a witty answer to all of the nonsense of user end agreements that we all sign all our rights away by simply tearing off the shrink wrap or signing a credit card. Very cool.

I haven’t figured out the “tiny urls” twitterers seem to use to do links, but it’s only a matter of poking around.

Reading this book review this morning on Slate: What’s Romantic about Science: when science became a source of sublime terror by Adam Hirsch.

A taste:

“The perception of truth is almost always as simple a feeling as the perception of beauty… and the genius of Newton, of Shakespeare, of Michael Angelo, and of Handel, are not very remote in character from each other. Imagination, as well as reason, is necessary to perfection in the philosophic mind.”

Humphy Davy (who is apparently the 19 century scientist who isolated the elements of sodium, iodine and clorine for the first time in his lonely lab)

quoted in the book Hirsch is reviewing in the article:  The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, by Richard Holmes

Makes me think the book might kind of fun.